In a move in line with today`s increasing need for integration, Progress Software South Africa has embarked on an aggressive drive to recruit partners for its Sonic software offering, and is looking at growing an already active market.
Sonic Software, a company in the Progress stable, is the inventor and leading provider of the enterprise service bus (ESB), offering standards-based integration and messaging products that deliver flexibility, scalability and continuous availability to enterprise-level users. Sonic enables customers to integrate their organisations from the department to the extended organisation with a standards-based, service-oriented architecture (SOA).
Rick Parry, MD of Progress Software South Africa, says there is a general recognition in the local market of increasing need for companies to be able to trade across multiple technology platforms, whether these are based on mainframes, IBM, Oracle, SAP or Progress.
"There is broad-based technology in the local business community and for these companies to be able to trade, they need integration," Parry says. "Execution on strategic opportunity depends on the flexible integration of business processes. Corporate applications must connect to each other, as well as to partner and customer applications. Broad-based integration of heterogeneous applications and business systems enables organisations to become more agile, responsive and competitive.
"That need can be addressed through technology based on a service-oriented architecture and Sonic`s enterprise service bus. The key is to have a common interface into the business to ensure that various different systems can talk to one another openly. This will fulfil the promise of Web services." Parry says integration at this level is more than just a technology sale.
"In order to allow the South African market access to the best of Sonic`s business integration capabilities, we believe the optimum way forward is through the channel. Working through partners that have specific expertise across a range of industries is a model that has worked most successfully for Progress over the past 20 years."
Partners play an important role in Sonic`s growth and success, contributing valuable domain expertise, engineered solutions and the skilled project talent needed to solve business problems.
"Aside from the fact that Sonic offers the most sophisticated integration technology on the market, it comes at a price that makes it more affordable than competitive products. This means our partners not only have access to excellent technology, but they can also take advantage of its attractive pricing. Because this cost-effectiveness can be passed onto the customer, there is much greater opportunity for its uptake, making Sonic an attractive option for local partners. It is also easy and quick to implement and to customise in accordance with user needs."
Built on the world`s first ESB, Sonic`s architecture overcomes the limitations of monolithic integration brokers and application servers, enabling organisations to implement a high-value "deploy once - access everywhere" strategy for their critical business services.
In its 2004 Predictions series, industry analyst Gartner forecasts that ESBs "will supersede traditional communication middleware in new applications by 2007".
Progress is looking for partners who have skills in the integration space, offer consulting and professional services based on experience and expertise, and deliver industry and specialised solutions that extend, enhance or leverage Sonic offerings.
* Partner recruitment is driven through the SonicSynergy Business Partner programme. For more information, visit www.sonicsoftware.com/partners, or contact Progress at 011 254 5400.
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Progress Software South Africa a supplier of software products for e-business applications.
Worldwide Progress Software has long been recognised for its ability to give independent software vendors (ISVs) the technology and services they need to meet the rigorous requirements of middle market, resource-constrained environments and to deliver industry-specific, integrated solutions quickly and at a low total cost of ownership.
Progress has had an official presence in SA since January 2000, when it bought back its licensing rights from Realtime with a view to expanding its market share locally and in other African countries.
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